'Pirate Strength' Game Setting Needed

Pirates too ridiculously powerful for casual players

from Sins Forums

The changes made for Diplomacy were worthwhile, in my opinion, and I still love the pirate factor in my Sins games.  It would really help if there was a slider bar option or something similar for pirate strength -- as it is now, the pirates are way too powerful (from the viewpoint of a casual player)

My friends and I were having a lan match earlier and everything was fine until about 3 hours in when we discovered that a 30,000+ credits Pirate mission against a player's homeworld was... unstoppable. (planet would inevitably be lost in the ensuing bombardment but the fleet could be taken down with time)  Soon the game deteriorated into mutually assured destruction of each other's homeworlds.

Frankly the pirate missions should cost at least 3 times as much as they do now -- right now the payoff is so much bigger than the payment required.  However I know not everyone feels that way, so wouldn't it be real useful to be able to set the strength of the pirates before a game began?  Perhaps it would solve the pirate imbalance problem and please both hardcore and casual players all at once.

Thoughts?

9,039 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

My suggestion would be to mod the strength of the pirates down to fit the gameplay with your friends. There are a couple of threads here somewhere that show how to do this which is not as complicated as one would think.

I would be fine with your suggestion overall, but don't think it will happen anytime soon.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Nah. The player base shouldn't be forced to mod the game in order to escape an obviously broken feature. The pirates in this game are FUBAR atm.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Personally, I'd just play with the pirates off.  I really don't know what they would add in a game pitting friends against friends.  How would you ever know who truly "won" the game with an element like pirates in the mix?

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Pirates add uncertainty and doubt into the mix.  For some folks, they actually seek that element.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Pirate strength is fine.  Pirate frequency is not.  13 minutes between raids and 5 minutes between missions causes problems now that the pirates are much stronger.  Increasing both timers to 15-18 minutes would be more in line with their current strength.  Also, the AI bounty bug isn't helping matters.

Quoting Agent, reply 3
Personally, I'd just play with the pirates off.  I really don't know what they would add in a game pitting friends against friends.  How would you ever know who truly "won" the game with an element like pirates in the mix?
End of Agent's quote

Pirates are there for FFA.  They don't really work in locked team games, as they just turn into an extra military force for the team that's winning.  A normal raid, two 10000+ missions, and your normal fleets will pretty much end a 2v2 game right there and then.  I fully agree they should be turned off in any locked team game.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

You sir, are wrong.

Pirate strength is not fine when every pirate ship has the strength of a military capital ship.

Pirate strength is not fine when pirates are the dominate force of arms in the galaxy.

Pirate strength is not fine when pirates have unlimited amounts of fleet supply.

Pirate strength is not fine when you have 400+ pirate ships sitting at the pirate base.

Pirate strength is simply put - not fine.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

pirate frigs have 21-24 armor...equiv. to a full defense starbase.
they also have 2k~ish hull, just a couple hundred short of a fully upgraded HC.

pirate turrets have 34 armor...and 7k hp...and 100 dps....each basically a starbase with all defense upgrades.

now imagine a late game raid bringing 40-50 pirate frigs to your base...

oh, yes, and the turrets are perfectly capable of murdering strike craft...

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Just an idea, but i have put a mini mod together for this, it may not be a "slider", but i am hoping it will help, take a look if you want and let me know. Hope it makes the game a bit more fun and less hectic. 

Take care,

:)

-Teal

 

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/378900